Offshore action is very good right now. The yellowfin tuna bite is scattered but fish are being caught and they are in the 40 to 70 pound class. Wahoo action is very, very good. Billfish action is also good with blue marlin showing up anywhere from 20 fathoms on out to the deep. Bigeyes continue to pop up at the Norfolk Canyon. Some impressive gaffer dolphin have been boated. A few swordfish are being caught at night and a few have even been caught during the daytime on the troll.
Virginia's big billfish tournament is scheduled for Aug. 22-25. Visit www.vbbt.com for details.
Marcel Montane will be the speaker at our August 21 meeting. He will be talking about fish abundance as monitored by the juvenile trawl survey.
Aug. 7, Bob Allen and Jack Lawson fished the 3rd and 4th islands of the CBBT. They came in with a limit of nice flounder. Cut bait was the ticket.
Aug. 6, Robert Smith and his son fished from the shore in Poquoson. They caught some nice puppy drum and a bunch of nice crabs. They then spent some time cleaning up the shoreline. Now, that is a great day!
Aug. 5, Bob and Jen Manus (the only husband and wife IGFA All Tackle World Record couple I know) fished the Fingers. They trolled up 5 dolphin.
Aug. 4-5, we did an overnight trip offshore. We fished the 100 fathom curve east of the Cigar. During the night, we had a lot of squid and mackerel in the light. We caught some and added to our bait supply. We caught a couple of yellowfin but no swords. In the morning we started trolling and picked up few more yellowfin. They were in the 65-70 pound range. Jorj Head caught the one that met the 70 lb citation minimum. There was a lot of grass and some boats bailed dolphin. We just trolled and caught a couple. We also picked up a wahoo. We had a number of billfish encounters. We flat out missed two blue marlin. We had a white attack the spreader bar without getting a hook in it. We then had at least 3 whites come in at once. Got hooks in two, landed one. Ric Burnley caught that one, his first ever billfish. Ric got to go swimming back at the dock. We did see one swordfish during the daytime. We got to see it free jump a number of times before it left us.
Aug. 3, Frank Kearney did some bottom fishing, probably in the area of the Norfolk Canyon. They caught a limit of blueline tilefish and grouper. Exact species and location are secret. You go Frank!
Aug. 3, John Hunt fished south of the Norfolk Canyon. They caught a yellowfin tuna. Other boats fishing with them caught wahoo, dolphin, and a sailfish. Overall, fishing was slow.
Aug. 3, Wes Blow took some guys out after croaker out of Huntington Park. They caught a bunch in the 13-16 inch range near the James River Bridge.
Aug. 2, Capt. Richard Bartlett and his son, Brandon, fished at buoy 42. They came in with a limit of flounder including 2 over 6 pounds.
Aug. 2, Steve Martin and Jerald Abraham caught 8 keeper flounder to 23 inches at Back River Reef. They also caught a bunch of shorts. They were catching fish directly in the structure.
Aug. 1, Frank Kearney fished Hampton Bar. He caught 8 keeper flounder to 22 inches.